Strumming songs with big pauses between chord changes is a really common problem for beginners, and it sounds really amateurish! There’s nothing worse than someone singing or playing through a song, then pausing for 5 seconds to try to make that dreaded tricky chord change! The root of the problem is usually that the muscles have not been trained to make the correct movements for the chord change easily and effortlessly.

There are a number of techniques you can use to overcome this problem:

Play through the whole song no tempo

Make sure you can do the changes slowly in order, and get a feel for which chords changes are causing problems.

Drill the problem chord changes

Start slowly (no tempo), focusing on quality rather than speed. Do not underestimate the power of this, done right! Often for me, as a more experienced player, this stage alone is all that’s needed. Then try increasing speed. Gradually! Once you can do the change slowly with accuracy, use “one minute changes” to see how many chord changes you can make in a minute. Record your score.

Drilling chord changes is really important as it builds muscle memory, so you don’t have to think about your chord changes any more (there’s a sense of your fingers just doing the chord changes themselves).

Strum Once Per Bar

Now we are starting to think about staying in time. Try playing along to the recording, just one strum per bar or chord. If you’re struggling, slow it down! Try playing along to a metronome or slowed down version of the song (e.g. using amazing slow downer). If you can’t do one strum per bar you will struggle with a full complex strum pattern! Make sure you do it at a speed you are comfortable with.

Strum twice per bar

Try increasing the number of strums to twice per bar. Again, if you’re struggling slow things down. If it’s really comfortable, sometimes you can skip this stage.

Strum once per beat

This is the crux point. You need to be able to strum every beat (4 times for most pop songs) and make the chord changes without pausing. If you can’t do this then there’s no way you can do the whole strum pattern. It’s essential that you don’t pause your strum for the chord changes! Better to slow down the song than to embed in the hesitations. If you practise hesitations, no matter how slow, you’ll get really good at… hesitating between chords!

Practice the strum independently

The strum needs to be effortless before trying to combine it with chord changes, particularly if you are new to playing, and still need to concentrate on your chord changes. You only have limited attention – choose one hand at a time until things are automatic!

Try chords with the strum pattern

This is the tricky bit – putting the chords together with the strum. Don’t pause! Slow down, and make sure you can keep your tempo/strumming really even.

If you need to, just take two chords and go back and forth to get used to changing with the strum pattern.

Go back and fix problem areas

This is crucial. Practice has to be dynamic! You need to mix up different approaches. Try playing through the song, see what holds up, what needs fixing. Work on the problem chord changes; take just two chords – try no tempo chord changes back and forth, “one minute changes”, try 4 strums on each without pausing, try with the full strum pattern (alternating between the two chords). Then try it in context (just that section of the song). Then try the whole song again and see if it holds up. If anything needs fixing, go back into more focused practise on that particular musical phrase to fix it.

Just Play
Forget all this and have fun! Come back to the detailed practice another time. Just focus on keeping the rhythm flowing – accept that there’ll be a few chord mistakes along the way!

Other tips:

Slow down!
Better to go slow with quality to start with. Speed will come with time.

Focus on ease, relaxation and effortlessness
The more tense you are the harder to make your fingers work. Notice where you’re holding tension and just let it ease.

Practice makes permanent
So don’t embed the hesitations or mistakes!

Don’t be a perfectionist
Aim for quality, but accept that there’ll be a few buzzy chords along the way – keep working on them, but don’t let the odd imperfection impinge on your steady rhythmic flow!

Keep strumming!
No matter what is going on with the chord changes, keep that rhythm going!

Break it down
Don’t just play through the whole song each time. Take small sections or musical phrases to work on. You can play through the whole thing again later.

Just play
Play through the whole song sometimes! You have to keep things dynamic and fun! Mix it up!

Go easy on yourself
Have fun! These things take time! Don’t expect the moon on stick – some things take time 🙂

Many of you will have come across strange looking chords such as G/B or D/F#. This doesn’t mean you can choose which of the two chords to play, or that you play one chord then the other! Rather, “G/B” is actually a single chord. The note before the slash (G/) tells you the overall chord to be played, while the note after the slash (/B) tells you which note is to be played in the bass of the chord. For example,

G/B = a G chord with a B note in the bass.
D/F# = a D chord with an F# note in the bass.

You could think of the “/” as meaning “over”, as in “G over B”. In other words, the B in the bass is sitting under the rest of the chord.

The Theory Side of Things

A chord is composed of more than 2 individual notes (or pitches) played at the same time. For example, a G chord is made up of the notes G, B and D. With a normal G chord, the note G will be in the bass. However, it is also possible to put the B or D in the bass, which you’d see written as G/B or G/D. These are known as inversions.

Occasionally, you’ll get a non-chord note in the bass, such as G/A or G/F#. These can be a simple way of writing out more complex chords (e.g. you could write Bb/C rather than Csus9). They can also often be a way of showing a moving bass line over a static chord. For example, you might see a progression like: C, C/B, C/Bb, C/A. The C chord is staying static while the bass line is moving underneath it (descending from C to B to Bb to A).

Common Guitar Examples of Slash Chord Usage

C – G/B – Am or it’s closely related cousin C – C/B – Am (notice the bass in both these examples is walking down from C to B to A).
G – D/F# – Em or it’s closely related cousin G – G/F# – Em (again, the bass is walking down – this time on the 6th string – from G to F# to E).

Help – I Play Ukulele! What Should I Do?

Most ukuleles don’t have bass notes (certainly not re-entrant gCEA tuned ukes!), so the majority of the time I would suggest ukesters ignore the bass note after the slash. So when you see a G/B, just play a G chord! The exception to this is if the author of the chord chart is trying to outline a particular chord movement by using slash chords. I see this sometimes online, and – while often not technically correct – you can usually figure out what the author intended, particularly if there’s an accompanying chord chart. If in doubt, just ignore the note after the slash! For example,

Wichita Lineman features some fantastic chords – it’s a great workout for more advanced guitarists, with rich major 7ths and interesting slash chords. If you’re in doubt about any of them, I’ve included a full list at the bottom of the page.

Simplified Version
Beginner to intermediates can try the simplified chord chart, which still features a tricky Bb barre chord (x13331, or you could try 688766). For an easy version of Gm just bar across the 3rd fret of the thinnest three strings (xx0333), or for a fuller sound try the bar chord (355333).

The Bb/C Chord
Bb/C is not as tricky as it sounds – you just lay your finger across the 3rd fret (x33333). The C after the slash (/) means to play a C note in the bass of the chord. Technically, in order to do this you need to mute the low E string, but don’t worry too much – it still sounds quite good if you do play that string. The chord is also known as C7sus4 or C11 – I’ve gone for the slash chord “Bb/C” way of naming, as (to my ear at least) Bb makes for a better substitute chord than C. So, ukulele players can just play a Bb.

Strumming

You could just play this with steady 8th note downstrums (8 per bar), or you could do something a bit like this:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D D DUD D D DU

It’s best not to be too rigid with it – you can add small upstrums wherever feels right. Just be sure to keep the downs steady and consistent. Also, you can put a slight emphasis on beats 2 and 4.

Chord Reference

Looking at the live videos, Glenn Campbell tends to use the first set of chords where I’ve suggested two different options (i.e. around the 5th fret) – but he does have a full band and orchestra behind him! The second set of chords sound great for solo acoustic playing:

Blame It On Me was another one brought to me by one of my younger guitar students. While just three chords, it is a great tune for working on strumming and feel. It is also a good one for beginners to work on their G to C changes – a difficult one when you’re first starting out!

If you are struggling with the Gsus4 (which Ezra plays on frets 320013), you can just play a regular G chord. The Fmaj7 is played as x33210, and Ezra alternates between the C and Fmaj7 to create an intro chord riff, which returns as a fill throughout the song.

Ukulele players and guitarists without capos can play along to the live versions – all the versions I’ve heard have been in the key of C.

Notice the Verse strumming pattern is just the same pattern repeated twice (D D _UDU). I have included the “_” underscore as a reminder to leave a space there where there would be a downstrum (but keep your arm swinging downwards!)

Intro/Fills
The Intro is slightly trickier – I have marked out where the chord changes are underneath the strum pattern. Ezra hammers onto the F chord with his little finger after the downstrum on the C on Beat 3, and then returns to the C chord for the last “UDU” of the pattern. As always, listen to the recording as much as possible to get the sound of this into your ear, as it can be hard to get the nuances from the written page!